The Education Wars: More Stupid Arneisms

I always knew Arne Duncan was blithering, blathering idiot, but I think he has just outdone himself with his remarks about Hurricane Katrina.

Duncan was quoted as replying: "It's a fascinating one. I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, and this is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that 'We have to do better.' And the progress that they've made in four years since the hurricane is unbelievable. They have a chance to create a phenomenal school district. Long way to go, but that -- that city was not serious about its education. Those children were being desperately underserved prior, and the amount of progress and the amount of reform we've seen in a short amount of time has been absolutely amazing."

A Republican would have been tarred and feathered for this idiocy, but not Arne. Nobody asks for this cretin to step down.

This is just about as bad as Michelle Rhee's idiotic remarks about the 266 teachers she wrongfully fired.

The Education Wars

Here is more about the Louisiana class-action lawsuit of teachers who were wrongfully terminated following Hurricane Katrina:

Eleven months after New Orleans Civil District Court Judge Ethel Simms-Julien certified a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 8,500 former employees of Orleans Parish Public Schools who were terminated after the State of Louisiana seized control of more than 100 public schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal has affirmed the decision of the trial court. The three-judge panel was comprised of Judge Edwin A. Lombard, Judge Terri F. Love and Judge Paul A. Bonin.

"After reviewing the record before us, including the petitions, the arguments of the parties, the testimony at the certification hearing and the trial court's reasons for judgement, we find that there was a sufficient factual basis for the trial court to certify this class," Judge Lombard said Thursday.

The case began on October 28, 2005, just two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orlans and the Gulf Coast when three employees filed a Petition for Injunctive Relief to prevent the Orleans Parish School Board from terminating their employment, claiming a violation of their state-mandated due process and property rights as certified and/or permanent public school employees. The initial plaintiffs included Eddy Loiver, a public school principal; Oscarlene Nixon, a paraprofessional/teacher's aide; and Mildred Goodwin, a custodian. The lawsuit was amended to include the State of Louisiana following the state's takeover of more than 100 New Orleans public schools effective November 30, 2005. Other "State defendants" include the Louisiana Department of Education and its Recovery School District, and the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

This was an underhanded way to get charter schools and other privatization schemes through. What a dirty thing to do in light of this horrendous tragedy.
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Michael Scott, president of the Chicago Public Schools school board, has committed suicide, it was reported:

The death of Chicago school board president Michael Scott has been ruled a suicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Scott was found with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the office. His body was found early this morning at the water's edge of the Chicago River behind the Chicago Apparel Center at 350 N. Orleans along the north branch of the river, police said.

He apparently fell forward after shooting himself, and the gun was found under the body, police sources say.


Scott's family had contacted police Sunday night when he didn't show up after visiting his sister at a South Loop care facility. The relative said he visited his sister regularly on Sundays and described him as a creature of habit. He was last seen about 6 p.m.

Miscellaneous News

I will leave it up to readers to determine whether patients were killed during the Katrina catastrophe.

It doesn't surprise me at all people were murdered by people who suppose to be in the practice of healing people. God damn them all. Pou and her ilk should be serving prison time.
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As the World Turns.

So was racism at play in the NOLA grand jury's failure to indict Dr. Pou and others in the alleged killings of hospital patients during Hurricane Katrina?
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Katrinagate.

Casinos in the Gulf Coast thrive while residents continue to struggle.

Hurricane Katrina

may have been a disaster for New Orleans and other cities on the Gulf Coast, but it's been a triumph for profiteers and other crooks.

Katrinagate.

And here is yet another piece from the WSWS about the Katrina catastrophe.

The WSWS

notes the callous disregard for residents of New Orleans by Bush returning to the scene of the "crime," as the publication calls it:

It’s difficult for many residents to see progress, because for them there is no progress. According to a recent study by the Institute For Southern Studies, “The Katrina recovery is failing. As of mid-August [2007], 60,000 people are still living in ‘temporary’ FEMA trailers because of hold-ups on aid programs and insurance. Schools and hospitals are shuttered, good jobs are scarce and daily threats to health and wellbeing aren’t addressed.”

The Los Angeles Times observed, “Off his [Bush’s] route in the Lower Ninth Ward, there was even more evidence [of devastation]: entire blocks deserted, with no sign of rebuilding attempts, and store after store boarded up.”

Our Dictator,

who should have been run out of D.C. along with his entire administration following the Katrina catastrophe, decided to rub salt into the wound of New Orleans by visiting the Crescent City on the second anniversary.

I am serious. He and his entire administration should have been forced to resign. This was such a monumental act of neglect and downright wrongdoing, the public should have run the administration out.

So when people start blathering about impeachment of both our dictator and our president, I want to laugh in their faces. Why didn't they pressure the administration to get out when their negligence all but destroyed one major American city, something that has NEVER happened in the entire history of this country?

New Orleans was our version of Pompeii, but it was not due to nature.

Not Dead Yet's Stephen Drake

wonders if prosecutors in the Anna Pou case deliberately screwed it up.